The present invention disclosed herein relates to a pressure sensor and input device, and more particularly, to a highly sensitive pressure sensor that may implement highly sensitive sensing with a simple configuration, and an input device using the same.
Demand for the development of various sensor technologies continues to increase due to the advent of the internet of things (IoT) era that connects things by using a digital technology. In particular, a touch/pressure sensor is a sensor that is widely used for most of daily things, such as flexible/wearable devices, robots, and health care as well as spaces closely connected with life, such as homes, factories, offices, and cars, but it has a limitation in that the costs of material and process are significantly high. The reason is that materials mostly used as electrodes so far, for example the prices of gold, silver, metal based nano wire, indium tin oxide (ITO), and carbon nano tube (CNT) are relatively high. Also, a study to form a micro-structure through the remodeling of the structure of a dielectric layer in order to increase the sensitivity of a pressure sensor in an existing parallel-plate capacitor structure is being actively conducted, but it is true that the cost of a process is significantly high because complicated processes, such as photo-lithography and etching are needed.
For this reason, most highly sensitive pressure sensors are staying in a study stage and fail to lead to commercialization. Thus, there is a need for the development of a new-concept high-performance pressure sensor that may overcome the limitation of an existing pressure sensor using a high-priced material and manufactured through a silicon process to minimize material and process costs.